Olympic medal provides drive Townsend lacked

Published 5:30 am, Wednesday, June 2, 2004

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Officially, it was a hyperextended right knee that knocked Sean Townsend out of the 2003 USA Gymnastics national championships and ended his slim chances of qualifying for the world championship team that eventually won a silver medal for the United States.

At the time, however, even Townsend knew the biggest problem wasn't his knee, but between his ears.

"I wasn't motivated," Townsend said last week as he prepared for today's opening round of the 2004 national championships. "I tried to fool myself and act like I was. But deep down, I didn't have the drive. In my mind, the world championships was something I had already accomplished."

That much is true: Townsend, 25, who trains at Houston Gymnastics Academy, won the gold medal on parallel bars at the 2001 world championships and was poised to become the first U.S. man to win the all-around world title.

He didn't make it. And, as is always the case in this fiercely competitive sport, another was there to seize the moment. A few weeks after Townsend's flop at the 2003 U.S. championships, Paul Hamm of Waukesha, Wis., who in 2002 unseated Townsend as national all-around champion, became the first U.S. man to win the world all-around.

Those developments, plus his back-to-back poor perfor-

mances at nationals and a reprimand from the International Gymnastics Federation for a positive cannabis test in 2002, made it fashionable — and logical — to write off Townsend as a challenger for the 2004 Olympic team.

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But the skeptics underestimate Townsend's potential to regain the form that secured his spot on the 2000 Olympic team and won for him the 2001 national all-around title.

"I don't have an Olympic medal," Townsend said. "And that is the thing that drives me now. For two years, my focus has been on this year. My body knew, but it was something that I had to figure it out for myself."

Townsend began his comeback in January by finishing second to Blaine Wilson at the Winter Cup Challenge in Las Vegas. He later won three medals in an event in Ukraine.

So he enters today's events — one of four days that will help determine the 2004 U.S. Olympic team — with renewed confidence and motivation.

"I know there are people that doubt me," Townsend said. "That makes me want even more to come back and prove them wrong."

Kevin Mazeika, Townsend's longtime coach and coach of the 2004 men's Olympic team, has endured Townsend's ups and downs of the past year. So has training partner and national team member Todd Thornton, a former national junior champion whose family essentially adopted Townsend when he moved to Houston a decade ago.

"I've seen him drop off and then pick it up pretty nicely," Thornton said. "He's a guy who never doubts himself. He has all the confidence in the world. This year's focused more on what he has to do, and he's doing a great job of it."

Townsend has changed his high bar routine since Winter Cup and has dropped the dangerous, risky triple-back somersault high bar dismount that he could never quite get right in major competitions. He will, however, perform a vault known as the Dragalescu, named for Romanian world champion Marian Dragalescu, that only two or three men in the world attempt.

The athlete runs toward the vaulting table, then does a double-front handspring with a half-twist, landing with his body facing the table — "a tremendously high-level vault," Mazeika said.

Thornton, 21, also hopes to rebound from a disappointing 14th-place finish at nationals last year. He needs to perform well on pommel horse and floor exercise, two events in which the U.S. men are relatively weak, to improve his chances of making the Olympic squad.

"Last year I was more focused on staying healthy," he said. "This year I'm trying to put it all out there."

Each of the two days at nationals will count 20 percent of the men's total score toward Olympic qualifying.

U.S. Gymnastics summary

Setback for Gatson

Jason Gatson
, the 2003 all-around runner-up at nationals whose comeback from a series of injuries has been one of the bright spots for the U.S. men's team since the 2000 Olympics, withdrew from today's championships because of a lower back injury.

"I tweaked it before Pacific Alliance (Gymnastics Championships in Hawaii) and have been getting treatment on it since then. It started acting up again in mid-May during the pounding in training," said Gatson, a member of the United States team that won a silver medal at the 2003 world championships.

"My coaches and I felt that I need to play it smart right now and take care of it."

Wilson iffy

Five-time national all-around champion
Blaine Wilson
, who is recovering from surgery 13 weeks ago to repair a torn biceps tendon, may perform on floor exercise and high bar today, depending on how he feels during morning workouts. If he is unable to perform, he can still petition for a spot in the Trials on June 24-27 in Anaheim, Calif.

"He's not in Olympic routine shape on pommel horse, on rings, on bars, on vaulting," said his coach, Miles Avery. "We'll see how tired he is. We don't want him to get hurt again. If his energy level is up, hopefully he can do one or two events at a world-class level."

Avery also coaches defending all-around champion Paul Hamm and his twin brother, Morgan, and Houston native Raj Bhavsar. He said he wouldn't be surprised to see Bhavsar and Paul Hamm finish in the top two this week.